Some random items: Clouds on Mars, telescopes on Earth, missions to the Moon

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2008/03/31 05:31 CDT

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It's been one of those Mondays in which I've been working all day (well, except for a lunchtime shopping trip) but have finished almost nothing, so, with my apologies for a rather light post I'll share just a few interesting items

The first is this lovely animation, taken by an apparently daydreaming Opportunity rover, of cirrus clouds drifting across the sky...

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU / Texas A&M / Navigation camera

Clouds over Victoria

Opportunity turned its rover eyes skyward to observe clouds drifting overhead in March, much like it has throughout the mission. The clouds it captured here passing over Victoria Crater look like cirrus clouds on Earth, featherlike formations composed mostly of ice crystals.

The second is one of my favorite scientists, John Spencer, speaking on this week's Planetary Radio about what Cassini found during its recent plunge past Enceladus (and make sure you read the story I wrote last week about the recent flyby, if you haven't already)...

Mike Brown's blog contains an interesting perspective into a day in the life of an astronomer working on one of the world's great telescopes, the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea...

And I added a few more future missions to our long list of lunar explorers.